Defense of Laches, Not Statute of Limitations, Applied to Equitable Rescission and Reformation Claims.

The plaintiff filed an action as her mother’s legal guardian and conservator and the successor trustee of her parents' living trusts, seeking to rescind or reform a deed they executed in 1995 and a contract they signed in 1998. The lower court dismissed the plaintiff’s claims, finding that the statutes of limitations had run before the plaintiff filed her lawsuit in 2005. On appeal, the court found that the statute of limitations did not apply to the equitable claims, but that they would be subject to the  defense of laches. Because the lower court did not consider a laches defense, the court vacated the dismissal and remanded for a determination of whether any factual questions would preclude summary judgment on the laches defense.  Moffitt v. Moffitt, No. S-14495, 2014 Alas. LEXIS 156 (Alaska Aug. 8, 2014).